Everyone Has a Story

Everyone’s got a story

Olin
Cohan loves his job. “I love that my occupation doesn’t feel like an
occupation,” he says. “I love the time that I get to spend in some of
the most beautiful and remote areas that Nicaragua has to offer. And I
love working with people who are excited about the progress of their
country.”

As the director and co-founder of UniversitÁrea Protegida (UÁP), which trains Nicaragua’s future environmental leaders, Cohan
places university students in outlying rural areas, usually national
reserves, to conduct environmental thesis research. The students also
engage with the local communities, teaching environmental education
classes in the schools or leading workshops centered on sustainability
and natural resources.

To Cohan, the logic of UÁP’s program is
flawless: “By UÁP’s facilitating their relationships with local NGOs
and rural communities, [students] are being exposed to the
environmental field in a way that they would never be exposed to
without this opportunity.” And the real magic happens between the
university students and local youth. “The younger kids begin to ask our
students how they were able to get to college and begin to dream about
it for themselves.”

The idea for UÁP was born after Cohan joined
the Peace Corps and was placed in Nicaragua, in the environmental
education sector. He was already committed to environmental activism,
having worked with The Otter Project in Santa Barbara, California. In
September 2001, after three months of intensive Spanish study, he was
sent to Padre Ramos, a fishing village in the northwest corner of
Nicaragua.

In Cohan’s first year he and his Peace Corps
partner, Aram Terry, worked with local teachers, giving environmental
education classes in grade schools. He led environmentally-focused
teacher workshops and youth groups, spreading his passion for
conservation. Since Padre Ramos is one of 14 communities that form the
natural reserve Estero Padre Ramos,
Cohan and Terry began working with the local NGO in charge of managing
the protected area of the reserve and conducting a number of
conservation projects.

After a year, Cohan met Ofelia Arteaga, a
university student from Managua. Arteaga had arrived in Padre Ramos to
conduct her thesis research on the area’s birds and wanted to share her
knowledge with the community. Cohan, Terry, and Arteaga began
collaborating on the environmental education classes and, after
recognizing common conservation interests, began dreaming about a
program that would place Nicaraguan university students like Arteaga in
rural natural reserves to conduct thesis projects while helping to
educate locals about environmental issues. Thus, UniversitÁrea
Protegida (UÁP) was conceived.

After much fund-raising and
travel between the US and Nicaragua, UÁP officially became a project of
Earth Island Institute in August of 2003. Administratively, UÁP was set
and secured. “Earth Island has been a great fit for us,” Cohan says. “I
think this is what David Brower’s vision was based on; allowing those
of us with ideas the time and flexibility to get to work.” Today, UÁP
supports 18 students in four areas who are conducting their thesis work
and starting environmental education classes in rural schools.

While
Cohan seems to have found his dream job, it’s challenging work. He
spends about eight months a year in Nicaragua working at his office in
León and visiting the students once they’ve been placed, ensuring their
well-being while assisting with their research. He also travels to
remote corners of the country in search of communities and NGOs that
would welcome UÁP students’ involvement. The other four months of the
year, he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and works in the EII
offices on UÁP administrative tasks. The hardest thing about living in
two countries, he says, is adjusting to the different paces of each
place. “Nica time is at least an hour late, if not more. When I am in
California, I have a good excuse when I am late. ‘I’m still on Nica
time.’”